


Maybe this is Magic, this Day Dream...

by story_telling_sage



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 09:37:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12010023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/story_telling_sage/pseuds/story_telling_sage
Summary: Luna smiled shyly, absently, at the red head. Ginny didn’t bother smiling back, but she didn’t frown either. She didn’t tell Luna to go away, which was new.“I think you have wrackerspurts,” Luna said, instead of hello. “Your face is very gray.”When Ginny didn’t say anything, Luna kept going. “It’s okay. Mine is too, sometimes. Want help making them go away?”Ginny didn’t quite smile, but she did say, “Sure.”It was the start of something that had been set in motion before either of them even began to breathe.--In a world where you're born with an animal Soul Creature that reflects your soulmate, Luna and Ginny find each other.





	Maybe this is Magic, this Day Dream...

**Author's Note:**

> A short story written for the HogwartsHousesNet Mini Bang! Wonderful art by tumblr user moonyinstincts can be found linked at the end of the story! I can be found on tumblr at hannabbott.

Luna Lovegood was not born into this world alone. She was a squealing, pale blob of human flesh with a soft tuft of blonde hair already showing. Within hours of her birth, her Soul Creature began to form. It was soft at first, nothing but shimmering light and the essence of something more.

It took days for the shimmering air to finally stop wiggling, changing and shifting, and rearranging itself with indecisiveness before the gentle curves of a foal formed. It was faster than most Creature’s formed, but, then again, Luna always knew what she wanted. 

Not even an entire week old yet, Luna couldn’t make much sense of the soft nose that was pressed against her soft, baby flesh, but squealed with delight anyways. The foal nickered, staring at Luna with wide eyes. 

The bright red of  Xenophilius’ phoenix and the quiet of  Pandora’s crane greeted the pair into the world. Luna’s pudgy fingers reached, on instinct alone, towards that little part of her soul that would lead her to her soulmate.

Pandora was laughing, a beautiful thing that she would pass onto her daughter. Xenophilius was crying, soft tears that his daughter would spend her life wiping away with her own soft hands.

The foal, though not much bigger than the baby Luna was, tried to curl protectively around the newborn. They both knew, even then, that they were something, they were whole.

\--

Sometimes Soul Creatures formed late. Molly knew this. She told this to her husband, Arthur, in quiet hushed tones over baby Ginny’s crib. Arthur’s bear stalked around the crib with nervous energy as Molly’s squirrel chittered from his own perch looking over the crib. 

“It’ll be okay,” Arthur promised his wife, reaching out a hand to rest on the bear’s head. She came to a stop between the couple, letting out a low whine that made Molly burst into tears. 

“It’ll be okay,” Arthur promised his daughter. All their other children’s Soul Creatures had formed within days, sometimes within hours, of their birth. The longest, perhaps, being Charlie’s Creature who took a full three weeks to show up.

For Ginny it had been almost a year. Sometimes Soul Creatures formed late. It would be okay.

\--

Ginny’s soul was particularly stubborn. There was no other way about it, unfortunately. She was nearly four by the time her heart finally relented and let her Soul Creature finally burst into existence.

Growing up, Ginny frolliced and ran with her brother’s and their Creatures instead, too small to over think about what she was missing. Charlie’s miniature dragon and Bill’s soft mouse were good company, but Fred’s weasel and George’s manned wolf were the most fun. They were the ones that were the first to realize that Ginny was no longer existing in this world alone.

“Hey! Hey guys!” Fred called, slowing to a stop as soon as his manned wolf has paused, sniffing the air with intrigue. The gangly limbs of the wolf sank to the ground and nosed at the bush near where Ginny had stumbled and fallen during their race through the garden.

Unexpectedly, the wolf wasn’t nudging worriedly at Ginny - to whom he’s taken a shine to over the past three years - but was intently focused on the bush instead.

“What are you doing, silly?” George asked just as a soft, shimmering rabbit crawled out cowered towards Ginny. Fred and George were both uncharacteristically silent at this revelation. George’s wolf nudged at the small rabbit with joy and turned to Fred’s weasel with a happy bark.

Ginny looked at the rabbit curled up at her side, with it’s warm fur and cold nose, and giggled happily. She didn’t understand, not really.  Rabbits were small and fast, and so was Ginny. It was fitting, she’d think later when she was old enough to think about it. But for now she was vaguely reminded of the gnomes who hid in the garden and long fields of grass before deciding, in fact, that she was quite happy with this development after all. 

\--

Luna’s father’s Creature was a phoenix. He had been big for all of Luna’s life. Her mother called him softly, “ _ her heart _ ” the same way that her father called her mum, “ _ his love _ .” Bright reds and oranges were a comfort. He would sit next to Luna as she sat on her mother’s floor. 

He complimented her mother they way your soulmate’s Creature was supposed to. She was all bright ideas and bright smiles. She was a fire, a raging flame of  _ knowing _ , of  _ wanting _ , or eager smiles. 

She’d tell Luna every night, like fairy tales, about her experiments with the phoenix perching next to her. Luna’s foal curled up next to Luna’s side and right under the bird’s beautiful wing.

Her mother had named the phoenix Sonia, but Luna hadn’t come up with a name for her Creature quite yet. It seemed wrong, to name the foal without her soulmate there with her. After all, the foal was her soulmate, at least partially. Whenever Luna stroked the foal’s soft fur with her own soft hand she liked to think her soulmate could feel it out there, somewhere.

Opposing the phoenix was her mother’s crane. He was tall and watchful with worried eyes. Sometimes, when she was feeling fanciful, it felt like the crane could see something the rest of them couldn’t. Like the the grundle-fizz-wigs her dad was telling her about could. 

Sonia would preen and nip lovingly at the crane’s wings whenever his eyes would get too serious, whenever his wings would twitch too much. He was carefree, that phoenix. Like he knows that he could burn and burn for eternity and live. Luna thought her mother’s light would always shine.

But one day, the fire burned too bright. A spell went bad, went wrong in every way. Bright reds and oranges weren’t a comfort anymore, they were simply gone. 

Luna was sitting on the floor, one moment, with Sonia pointing out a constellation in a book much too big for Luna to read alone, and the next the air was filled with screaming. Luna would later think about how it only took a second, really. That’s how long it took to end a life. The air turned red, shimmered gold, and swallowed her mother whole. 

Sonia didn’t last much longer.  Luna didn’t see the Soul Creature disappear and die as must as she felt the sheer absence in the universe. That was her mother’s soul and it was gone, gone,  _ gone _ .

Later, Luna would scream. She’d scream as she woke from nightmares, she’d scream when left alone and felt safe enough to do so, but right then she was perfectly silent. Horses had more acute hearing than humans, and Luna’s foal heard the screams that were buried deep in her soul right at that moment. 

Reds and oranges were no longer a comfort.

\--

Ginny spent long summers still running in fields, this time with a rabbit by her side. Rabbits could run up to twenty-seven miles and hour and Ginny relished in that speed. She played hide and seek and tag, but sometimes she just ran. Her rabbit was a curious little thing, always sniffing out trouble. Ginny quite liked it that way.

The year that Ginny was left alone, learning what it was like to be an only sibling in a house used to so much more noise, there was a lot of trouble to be sniffed out. There was the ghoul in the attic and gnomes in the garden. The day they stumbled into Arthur’s garage, away from the watchful eyes of Arthur’s mother bear who rarely left Molly’s side, was the most excitement either of them had known.

Ginny spent that year gleefully taking things apart and trying to put them back together. She liked knowing how things worked, Ginny did. Her rabbit was curious, so that had to mean her soulmate was too. Ginny wanted to know things too, if that’s what he soulmate liked. She thought about taking apart a clock, going through a collection of rubber ducks, with her soulmate and let the thought warm her up inside. 

Ginny’s second most delightful discovery of that long and lonely year was when she finally figured out how to pick apart the lock on the broom shed. 

Rabbits could run up to twenty-seven miles an hour, but they were not meant to leave the ground. Ginny was meant to  _ fly _ . 

Her rabbit climbed into her sweater pocket, still small enough he could fit in there, and together they took to the skies under the soft cover of darkness. Arthur thought she was sleeping and so did Molly. There was a bear and a squirrel curled up together that did not stir because nothing inside of them sensed danger. 

This wasn’t danger though. This was freedom. This was Ginny grinning with all her teeth into the sky, even as she was only three feet off the ground, because this felt like love more than anything. 

\--

Sometimes Luna worried.

Scratch that. Luna felt like she was always worrying. 

Her mother was gone. She took her father’s phoenix with her. But Luna was still right here.

She held her Hogwarts letter in her hands. As soon as it arrived by an official looking owl, Luna had grabbed the parchment and took to the stairs. She climbed them up and up and up until she reached her mother’s laboratory. 

This was her favorite and least favorite place to be. This is where her mother had burned and disappeared. This was where Luna felt closest to her soul. She needed her mom right now, and this was as close as she would ever get.

She held that parchment acceptance letter in shaking hands and tried to ignore the warm presence of the quickly growing foal at her side.

Sometimes, Luna felt guilty.

Horses were steady. They stood on four strong legs and looked out at the world with determination. And here Luna’s hands were, shaking. 

Hogwarts seemed like a dream, one she wasn’t quite ready to latch onto quite yet. 

Horses were known for running, for breaking free, and in the end that’s what made her decision for her. If she stayed home, if she was homeschooled, if she did what her father wanted, she’d stay stuck. She’d be in this house, this empty teetering house, and  maybe become a ghost just like it felt like her mother was now. 

Her horse, slowly growing into her own gangly limbs, nudged her nose gently and whickered in silent encouragement. 

\--

Ginny kept one hand on her hand-me-down bookbag filled with everything she would need and the other steadying the rabbit that had taken up a perch on her shoulder. Fred’s manned wolf, Gertrude, carried his bag for him, leaving her older brother to tug at the ends of her hair and laugh. 

Ginny had a million quips on the tip of her tongue to make him stop, but didn’t use any of them.  Instead she let herself follow them onto the train and into a compartment filled with pranksters and gryffindor quidditch stars.

Angelina Johnson had a marmoset sitting on her shoulder and a smile that was blinding. Ginny spent that entire train ride hanging onto Angelina’s every word while her rabbit sniffed out every corner of that compartment. 

“Curious little guy,” Angelina said. Ginny just smiled brightly.

“Just like me,” she said, and thought it was the best thing in the world to be. 

\--

Luna stared at the ceiling. She knew, right as she saw those glistening stars, that she had made the right decision. Hogwarts was magic and Luna  _ wanted _ it. She ran one of her slender hands through her tangled blonde hair while the other on the back of her foal, who was quickly growing into filly.

The creature emanate a soft warmth that Luna knew only she could feel. She didn’t much notice the time that was passing, too caught up in trying to find constellations until, finally, her name was called.

“Lovegood, Luna!” By the way the fierce looking woman said her name this obviously wasn’t the first time her name had been called. Oops. She could hear the snickers from the crowd behind her. Oh well. There were more important things to be worried about than children being children.

Keeping her hand steadily on her foal’s back, Luna walked up the steps. Her eyes were still on the ceiling when the hat dropped over her head.

“Hello there,” Luna said. She wasn’t quite sure if she said it out loud or not, but the hat seemed to understand perfectly well. 

“Aren’t you a chipper one?” they replied. Luna nodded. 

“Yes sir.” Her remark was met with a sniff that was half laughter, half judgement. 

“Interesting. Miss Lovegood, is it?” they asked, but Luna didn’t really think he wanted an answer. After all, the lady had  _ just _ said her name. “And who’s the little creature with us today? Not so little, is she?”

“She doesn’t have a name quite yet,” Luna confessed. Subconsciously her fingers tightened in her filly’s mane. 

“Well I have no doubt you’ll get it sorted out rather soon. But more importantly, I guess we should finally get onto this Sorting business. It’s why I’m here, after all.”

“Of course, Mr. Hat,” Luna agreed. After all, that was why she was here too. 

“Curious mind, of course,” the Hat mused. “Nice loyalty you’ve got there too, and quite a bit of fearlessness to boot. Aren’t you a brave little one? But not quite a lioness, I don’t think. They’d eat you alive. No… you’ve got much to creative of a mind to go to waste on  _ Gryffindor _ .”

Luna didn’t interrupt him, just stayed quiet and listened.

“Rowena would like you, I think. And you’ll give that old knocker a run for their money, I just know it. Can’t wait to hear the walls talk about you, little one. Are you ready, then?”

Luna stayed quiet for just a beat. “Yes sir, Mr. Hat,” she finally said, a giddy feeling bubbling up in her stomach.

“Alright then, Miss Lovegood, off to Ravenclaw you go!”

When Professor McGonagall removed the hat it was to scattered applause throughout the Great Hall and her filly looking up at her like maybe, just maybe, this was magic.

\--

Ginny waited. And she waited. Her rabbit bounded around her feet, a manifestation of her own restless energy. She had never before been so frustrated that her name was at the very end of the alphabet. 

God, she’d never get sorted at this rate. It was taking  _ foreverrrr _ . 

Not that Ginny was worried. There were certain facts of the universe that were left unchanging; the sun rose, the stars shined, and Weasleys were sorted into Gryffindor. So really, it wasn’t even a question. But that didn’t mean Ginny enjoyed being last. 

By the time “Weasley, Ginevra” was finally called, Ginny was practically leaping out of her skin in excitement.

“Hello, little Weasley,” the Hat greeted her, as soon as it had been dropped over her head. Ginny didn’t respond. Afterall, it was a  _ Hat _ .

“Ah, so you’re going to be one of those? Fair enough. I guess we should get right down to it.”

“Guess we should,” Ginny replied. And then she waited. And waited. 

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?” she pouted. Really, Ginny had waited long enough.

“What can I say, Miss Gryffindor. I’m cheeky.”

And then the hat was being lifted off her head to the resounding sounds of GRYFFINDOR ringing through the hall, and that, in itself, was worth the wait.

\--

Luna, for all her apprehension, had looked forward to Hogwarts the same way she looked forward to the next sunrise. Somehow, it didn’t quite occur to her until she stepped foot into Professor Flitwick’s classroom, that this was her mother’s subject. This was the same classroom that Pandora Lovegood learned the basics of the magic that would eventually kill her.

Luna did not skip her first class, no matter how much her skin itched. She was a curious girl. She was a cautious slip of a thing, even if people didn’t understand why. But curiosity and caution does not mean cowardice. It meant Luna jutted out her chin, held her books tight, and stood steady. 

If her hands shook, that was fine, but her feet stayed planted on those old, stone floors. Luna needed a mother, right then, and this felt almost like coming home.

She watched a little man talk about the secrets of the universe and listened carefully. She took notes that made more sense than anything she took down during potions or defense against the dark arts. She thought about writing home and asking Father to send her some of mum’s old works but didn’t. Instead, she made a mental note to gather some up herself, over winter break. 

It was two weeks into the school year when they were finally progressing past theory and onto spell work that Luna’s filly made a decision for her. While other Ravenclaw first years were filing out of the classroom and onto their free period, Luna’s filly - she was calling her Marco for right now, unsure why, but the filly seemed to like it - blocked her into her desk. It wasn’t until Flitwick finally looked up from his desk to see the small, blonde girl with the wide eyes staring at him. 

Marco finally moved out of the way and nudged her towards the professor’s desk. 

“Luna, Sir,” she said, by way of a greeting. “Lovegood.”

Flitwick let his face soften with a grin, let his short stature work to his advantage instead of being a hindrance. There was a silver-blue bee sitting on his desk, watching the exchange. Luna tried to smile back and wondered what Marco wanted her to say.

“I was wondering,” she says, as she pinches at the baby fat still clinging to her arms, “if you have any reading you’d suggest?” 

It’s not what she wants to ask, but Luna isn’t quite sure what that is yet. This seems like a perfectly good place to start though. Flitwick frowns thoughtfully and Luna thinks about running. She thinks about steady hooves. She stays still, even if her hands are shaking.

“I think I’ve got just the thing for you,” the professor decides and quickly scurries over to his own bookshelf. Luna’s frozen up until Marco nudges her forward, and this she lets herself start to feel the delight at learning something new. 

Curiosity is not cowardice. 

\--

Ginny, in a shocking turn of events, was lonely. After spending an entire year by herself, Ginny didn’t think anything would be a more lonely experience than being in a usually full house when completely empty, but it turns out that you can be alone even when surrounded by so many people. 

It was just, that, well, it was lonely. Her brothers were busy and all her roommates wanted to do was talk about the newest Weird Sisters album. When you go from growing up with built in best friends to be on your own, sometimes it feels like there’s a gap. She didn’t want to be their hanger-on. Fred and George had Lee and Angelina to prank and scheme with and she could only take so many study sessions with Percy.

But Ron… Ron had  _ Harry Potter _ and  _ Hermione Granger _ and he didn’t need his little sister tagging alone anymore.

Ginny never thought it would be this disturbing, to be unneeded. 

There was no broom shed to break into, no ghoul to prank, and no chores to begrudgingly do. There was homework and listening to the girls in her class and feeling so far removed from it all, it felt like something was breaking.

Ginny did have something, though. She had her diary.

\--

There was a girl with red hair in the library.

Luna didn’t talk to her, not quite yet, but Marco seemed rather insistent on it.

Red, afterall, was a good luck color.

\--

Ginny couldn’t think of a color she hated more than red.

She kept waking up with red hands, red robes, red hair, and she was  _ scared _ . She didn’t remember killing the roosters, but there were feathers all over her robes, mixed with blood. There were words written on stone, castle walls that Ginny doesn’t remember writing but the evidence is right in front of her.

Red. Red. Red.

Ginny hated the color red. 

“I think I’m going crazy,” she wrote in her diary. Somewhere, Ginny swore, she could hear laughing. Jullian, her little hare who seemed to be getting smaller by the day, curled up in her robe pockets. 

“You’re not crazy,” she could almost hear him saying, but Ginny didn’t believe him. 

\--

Kids, Luna knew, could be cruel. This wasn’t news to her, but that didn’t make it any easier. She sat next to Anthony Goldstein in charms and he never met his eyes. She’d try to talk to the hufflepuff girl next to her in Herbology, only to have her stiffen and turn away with a war eye. Kics, Luna knew, could be cruel. But this was a new low.

Luna had brought her knick-nacks and protection charms she had made the summer before with her father to ward off wackerspurts and other nefarious things. These charms, however, did not ward off the bullies. Luna found this out when she woke up one morning to her favorite bracelet missing, next to her latest edition of the Quibbler gone from her bedside.

Luna thought to herself, quietly, that the world would be a lot nicer of a place if maybe there was a spell to keep the bullies at bay. Luna knew it wasn’t wackerspurts that made her classmates giggle, but they certainly didn’t help. Those little creatures would burrow into your brain and play all the worst things on loop.

 _Your mother is dead. You are alone. They don’t even want you here_ anyways _. You’re stupid. You’re useless. You’ll never make friends so you might as well give up trying. Your mother is dead. She is dead and you are alone._

It was the constant litany Luna lived with echoing around in her brain, and now that her protective bracelet was gone she could feel the voices getting louder and louder.

In the Hogwarts halls there was another girl with voices in her head.

\--

Jullian was getting desperate. He trailed around after Ginny more like a ghost than a part of her soul, worry eating him from the inside out. There was a voice in his head. The voice whispered sweet words and soft reassurances that made every inch of his fur stand on end. 

It all started with the diary. Then it had all gone so fast and he was so scared.  _ Ginny _ was so scared. 

He had tried to get Fred and George’s attention somewhat desperately. Someone had to help them. They  _ needed _ help. Couldn’t anyone see? Gertrude, with her long limbs and russet fur, was more interested in playing games than trying to listen to anything Jullian had to say. Didn’t she know that this was serious?

Ginny was in danger. Nothing was more serious. 

Percy found them, once, and Jullian had never been more grateful. Percy’s burrowing owl was as intuitive as the soul he was bonded with. He’d know that something was wrong. He’d understand the words that they couldn’t figure out how to form. 

“You know you can talk to me, right Gin?” Percy said as they curled up in the back corner of the library. “If something’s wrong?”

The conversation was stilted and awkward. The entire time Jullian felt like there was a snake at his throat.  _ Something’s wrong! _ he wanted to scream, but couldn’t. 

Ginny, it seems, couldn’t find the words either. Instead, she nodded, looking more like a mouse than like the firebird she was, and the conversation ended. 

Everything was going so fast and they couldn’t run far enough to get out of their own head.

\--

Marco grew over winter break. Luna did not. She could lean bodily against him at this point, without risking him falling over. It was after Herbology in early January when Luna truly delighted in this new development. Even bundled in her cooper and navy scarf the cold was still biting this time of year. Leaning into Marco provided a type of warmth that nothing else did.

It was nice. Nice enough that instead of retreating back to the castle, back to warmth, they walked towards the lake instead. It was frozen right now, but no one had been silly enough to try and skate across it quite yet. Luna gave it another few weeks, at least.

She loved the lake. Down here it was just her and Marco and the books she chose to bring with her. It was mostly Charms. Flitwick’s extra reading was fascinating and the list of books he recommended kept growing as Luna kept coming back for more.

This particular day, Luna wasn’t alone down by the lake. There was the girl with red hair.

Red hair was lucky, Luna knew. She wondered if this girl knew that. Luna was tempted, sorely tempted, to go tell her, but unlike before, Marco seemed distressed at the sight, rather than eager.  _ Something’s wrong _ , Luna thought. But she wasn’t sure what.

A small hare Soul Creature flickered and flitted around the little red head but seemed to freeze when he caught sight of Luna and Marco. Luna raised a shy hand to wave, thinking maybe, just maybe, this could be a friend.

Instead, the hare ran, and the little redhead followed.

She was almost as small as Luna, she noted absentmindedly, and leaned into Marco. Hogwarts wasn’t supposed to be this lonely.

\--

The voice had been growing louder and louder, her hands shaking harder and harder. Then one night Ginny felt her world go dark and knew, deep down, that she wasn't going to wake up again.

\--

Luna heard what they were saying. A girl had been taken. A little red headed Weasley with a missing hare.

Her body would rot in the chamber forever…

Luna curled in on herself, knowing she was safe but feeling anything but, and didn't think that red was a very lucky color after all.

\--

Ginny did wake up, though. She wasn't quite sure if she was happy about that development yet, she was too busy reaching out for Jullian and finding nothing but air.

There was a boy with dark hair and pale skin and the image made Ginny want to scream. Because that was Tom, he had to be Tom. Tom was here, he was real, he wasn't just a voice anymore and it hurt, it hurt, it hurt!

She scrambled away, palms scrapping on the rocky ground. Ginny heard a squeak, felt warmth, and let herself began to breathe again. Because Jillian was here now. Ginny was still okay. But not if Tom was here…

Tom…

“It’s me Ginny, it’s Harry. Come on, it’s okay. Ron’s not too far away, he’s just over there. It’s okay, really.”

Ginny didn’t realize, until quite then, that she was screaming.

The entire rest of the day passed as a blur, and so did the rest of the summer, it seemed. Ginny kept waking up, seeing Tom above her, and feeling a scream bubble up.

It was a summer spent on edge, and then, more than ever, were her midnight adventures the most important. Tom couldn’t touch her when she was in the sky.

\--

Luna found her on the train. The little redhead with the hare. Marco was next to her, almost towering after his most recent growth spurt. He was the one to nudge the compartment door open and invite themselves in.

Luna smiled shyly, absently, at the red head. Ginny didn’t bother smiling back, but she didn’t frown either. She didn’t tell Luna to go away, which was new.

“I think you have wrackerspurts,” Luna said, instead of hello. “Your face is very gray.”

When Ginny didn’t say anything, Luna kept going. “It’s okay. Mine is too, sometimes. Want help making them go away?”

Ginny didn’t quite smile, but she did say, “Sure.”

It was the start of something that had been set in motion before either of them even began to breathe.

\--

It was in their fifth year that, as Dean Thomas so politely put it, Luna and Ginny got their shit together. 

They’d been friends since that day on the train and steadily working towards something more. The previous year Dean and Ginny had both tried being straight and it hadn’t turned out quite like either of them expected. Ginny kept wanting those lips to be Luna’s soft, glossy pink, instead of Dean’s chapped lips that he bit when he was nervous.

Dean, on the other hand, thought Ginny’s hair was the wrong shade of red. He was expecting something lighter, something closer to being on fire, something like Seamus. 

Being straight didn’t pan out for any of them, but that was okay. Luna, if anyone had wanted to ask her, hadn’t given much thought to her sexuality. The only thing she really knew is that she missed the DA. It was almost, she had told Harry, like having friends. 

Although, if Luna thought about it, she did want to more than just friends with the only friend she really had.

That was okay too.

\--

Ginny made the first move. On a train, her very first year, before voices in her head and a girl with a horse at her side, Ginny had told Angelina Johnson that being curious was the best thing to be. 

Ginny was very curious about what it felt to run her fingers through Luna’s hair. She wanted to know every inch of her best friend. She wanted to know  _ more _ . 

It had been four years since Tom, and Ginny’s curiosity had stopped becoming fearful and was more like the childhood wonder she used to know. After all, her soulmate liked to know things.  _ Luna _ liked to know things. 

Luna was quick and curious and beautiful. Ginny looked at Jullian and could see Luna reflected back at her. 

They were sitting under the lake, when it happened. The sky was blue, the wind was biting, and Ginny was curious. 

Luna sat there, leaning into Marco, all bundled up in her ravenclaw sweater with Ginny’s scarf added to the mix. Ginny leaned into her, reading over Luna’s shoulder. It was warm and perfect and Ginny wanted this for the rest of her life. This girl, her rabbit, her horse.  _ This _ .

“I’m curious,” Ginny heard herself saying.

“About what?” Luna hummed, like she knew all the answers.

“What it would be like to kiss you,” Ginny said. Her heart was hammering. This was like flying, on the ground. This was like freedom, but this time they weren’t running. 

“We should find out,” Luna said, and leaned close.

Ginny closed the gap and had never been more grateful for being curious.

\--

Luna knew that when she looked at Marco, she saw Ginny looking back. Horses were steady and strong, and Ginny didn’t shake. The world could crack and rumble under her feet, and Ginny would stand strong. 

Sometimes Ginny’s world went gray, but that was okay. Luna was there to help her outrun the fear. Rabbits are fast and they are kind. Luna could be that for her soulmate, even if her hands still shook. 

On the day Ginny finally leaned forward and they finally crashed together, Luna’s hands were completely still.

\--

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Luna said, a smile playing across her lips. Ginny let her smirk widen and grow until it was a full blown grin. She wrapped her gangly arms around Luna’s curved hips and leaned in close.

“Satisfaction brought it back,” Ginny said, and kissed Luna. Jullian and Marco were curled into each other. Jullian’s nose buried in the horse’s mane like it was a blanket. Ginny felt warmth buoy up inside of her. She had this. This girl, her rabbit, her horse.  _ This _ .

Satisfaction, indeed. 


End file.
